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Unconventional Relaxation Techniques with Bron Volney - E20
26 Plays11 months ago
For many people, finding the right balance between relaxation and productivity can feel like an impossible task. You might spend your days managing work, family, and social commitments, only to find yourself too exhausted to engage in traditional forms of relaxation like meditation or exercise. This constant cycle of fatigue and stress can leave you feeling burned out and disconnected from a fulfilling lifestyle. In this episode, we explore relatable ways to find relaxation and enjoyment in everyday activities, helping you discover unique methods to unwind and stay active that fit seamlessly into your busy life.
Bron Volney is founder of BronCore Fitness, an in-person and online program that offers personal training and bootcamps. From private training sessions at clients' homes to launching his boutique fitness studio, his journey has evolved quickly. Known for his approachable style and practical fitness philosophies, Bron has garnered a loyal following, leveraging word-of-mouth and positive reviews to build a thriving community. His dedication to making fitness enjoyable and sustainable continues to resonate, positioning him as a relatable and influential trainer in the health and wellness industry.
“I'm addicted to working out, but not to the stereotypes that go with bodybuilding.” - Bron Volney
In this episode you will learn:
- How Bron finds relaxation through unconventional meditation practices, emphasizing the importance of finding personal methods of relaxation.
- The significance of balancing personal enjoyment with fitness routines and how working out can be a pleasurable activity rather than a strict discipline.
- Insights into Bron's business journey, including overcoming financial constraints and challenges due to his youth while establishing his gym.
- The unique business model of BronCore Fitness that combines personal training with small group classes, fostering a sense of community and personalized attention.
- Bron's balanced approach to fitness and nutrition, advocating for a sustainable lifestyle that includes both weekday discipline and weekend flexibility.
- Practical tips on maintaining physical activity and fitness routines, addressing the modifications for various physical conditions, and promoting natural human movement.
Resources
- Connect with Bron on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/broncorefitness
- Find out about BronCore Fitness and its offerings: https://broncorefitness.com/
- Shop all the products Bron mentions in the episode: https://alively.com/products/bron-volney
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
https://www.zapods.com
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
https://alively.com/
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Transcript
Ron's Training Philosophy: Enjoyment Over Regimes
00:00:00
Speaker
It's not all about being super, super strict all the time, but you've got to enjoy yourself. So, you know, I'm the least stereotypical trainer when it comes to strictly eating all the time, strictly, you know, not doing things and strictly working out all day long. I think I'm your most next door trainer you can find. And that's how people should be workout to enjoy yourself. And that's what my lifestyle is all about.
Introduction to Home of Health Spam Podcast
00:00:26
Speaker
This is the Home of Health Spam Podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
Ron's Journey to Braun Core Fitness
00:00:40
Speaker
Ron, it is great to see you. Thank you for joining us today. Yeah, thanks for having me. This is fun. Yeah, I i feel grateful we were introduced by another friend of the show and prior guest, Fernando Shaw. So good to keep it in the ah the Boston fitness community.
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah, she's great. I randomly met her through Instagram. So we've done a couple like kind of funny videos together and she's got a great following and started a pretty cool brand of herself on her own and pretty pumped for her how well she's doing. ah She's got definitely a lot going on. ah But today is about you. And we're really excited to to hear from you, learn from you, you know, this whole Braun Core Fitness brand. What is it that inspired you to build this and to be this guy? Be Braun.
00:01:24
Speaker
quick background. I just do some like, super amateur bodybuilding competitions back in college, like the all all natural one figured out that I really loved working out, but then figured out bodybuilding wasn't for me, it just was such a lifestyle that you know you had to be essentially like addicted to. you know I'm addicted to working out, but not to the stereotypes that go with bodybuilding, whether it be you know getting into drugs if people aren't natural or also just the people that you hang out all day. you know There's no fun for them, but now you know you can't really go out to restaurants and enjoy yourself. You're like you know bringing in your own freaking Miss Jet Dash you know herbs and stuff like that to add to your food.
00:02:06
Speaker
So loved working out, but went away from the bodybuilding aspect of it and then wanted to stay in the like exercise science realm of of you
From Physical Therapy to Personal Training
00:02:19
Speaker
know my life. So I moved out to Massachusetts.
00:02:22
Speaker
because I got accepted to Mass General Institute physical therapy school and then did some interning at Mass General Hospital which was cool in physical therapy wing but at the same time I was doing personal training on the side as a side job because that's what I've always thought personal training was you know like you're an instructor or at least it used to be you know back in like 2010 or so I was like trainers or instructors work out or I mean train or teach classes before work and then after work and then you have like your real job. So that's essentially what I was doing, you know, training and teaching classes to make money for physical therapy school. And then before physical therapy school started, I realized when I was, um, when I was doing my internship at Mass General was just, it's just a little profession for me. It was just physical therapy was not going to be for me. People, they show up because they're being given insurance money to show up, right?
00:03:15
Speaker
Like if you get hurt, have either of you ever been physical therapy? Oh yeah, I was in physical therapy on Friday. yeah and And so is it concierge physical therapy or is it is it um is it insurance paying?
00:03:28
Speaker
It was insurance paying in Bermuda though, right? So it may be a little different. Maybe a little different, right? So I mean, from when what I realized is like all these people, they go to physical therapy because they get six or eight weeks of physical therapy. And then after that, it's over, right? It's like severance, you know, it's cut and they're not going to come and pay 250 bucks a half hour to, you know, because medical costs are so ridiculously high because of insurance and it just makes no sense. So you're kind of like this robot. You're just like,
00:03:54
Speaker
Next person coming in, you're just handing them papers. here You go do this at home, do this at home, but you're not checking in. You know, you're not like writing them or anything like that. Seeing what are, you know, cause you're such a big load. And I just realized it's such a slow profession because even though it's a lot, it was just people don't, you know, they're only coming because insurance is paying. They don't want to be there necessarily. You know, 90% of people don't maybe 10% want to really get better, but the 90% are there because they need to get better.
00:04:20
Speaker
whether it's work or just to live, you know, activities, daily living. And then, and so I was like, man, this is just such a slow profession. So at the same time, I was doing personal training at a local gym and was like, you can make a like, I can totally make a living at this. This is something I can continue to do. I just have to really put my mind to it and, and fill my hours, right? Cause it's a hard part of training is you get early, you get maybe midday and you get late.
00:04:48
Speaker
So if you can really, you know, push it and put all your eggs in one basket and be like, all right, I'm doing this.
Founding Braun Core Fitness
00:04:54
Speaker
I'm going to fill up my schedule that you can do really well. And so I started to realize that. And so before physical therapy school started, I started doing one-on-one training as my full time. And, um, and then I started Broncor fitness because originally I was featured on a magazine called details magazine. They're doing like top.
00:05:14
Speaker
instructors of every city. Somehow I got chosen. Honestly, luck of the draw. Someone nominated me. I got yeah and nothing really that stood out about me at that point in time. I was a good instructor and someone was nice enough to. So I was Boston top trainer. And they had New York and LA and Miami. And I realized, if you Google my name, the only thing pops up are my like high school football pictures.
00:05:36
Speaker
And a couple of, you know, bodybuilding pictures, other than that, there was no, like, you know, if you're like how do I get in contact with this guy to train with him? There's nothing. So I was like, crap, I got to like, create something, you know, I got to create something more than that. So, so that's how Broncor Fitness came, wanted to pick a name that embodied something bigger than just me. Even though my name's in it, people hear Broncor Fitness, they don't think of a guy.
00:06:01
Speaker
Maybe they think of strong core. Maybe that it's you know it's not like a lot of people are like body by brawn or brawn training. or you know like and't want I wanted something that people hear and they don't think, oh, is that a guy? It sounds like more of a name right a brand. Everyone can wear it. And people say, instead of they say instead of going to the brawn court, they say, oh, we go to the brawn court. It doesn't mean me. So that's why I chose that name. um And my original thing I had to do because of there was a non, what's it called? Non-compete with the gym that I worked at. How do I kind of get around that? So I started doing charity workouts outside. So once a week I did charity bootcamps because no one can say anything about me giving money to charity. So it was a good cause. It was a good way for me to create a name for myself instead of people saying, what's wrong for fitness at that time, right? It was just me. I didn't want people to say, oh, it's this guy.
00:06:58
Speaker
in you The only way you can be part of Bronco Fitness is if you train with them. right so That's not very funny. know Not a lot of people can do that. It's not economical for a lot of people to do personal training. It's not cheap. you know so Why not do these charity workouts and then people can say it's bigger. They always go to this Bronco Fitness class. you know so That's how that started and I started doing workouts on Provincetown on the beach. I started doing bootcamps on the beach every other weekend. and was also and Those weren't charity because now all this outside of the Not from the local gym, they couldn't say, compete there's no other gyms out there, right? And then it just kind of spiraled into more of one-on-one training at people's homes, private training. And then I had a couple of trainers training underneath me and then started looking at spaces back in 2015.
00:07:48
Speaker
Just every space that I looked at was kind of cool, but every owner didn't trust me. just you know You're too young. Be sure you want to take on this burden. I'd have architects come in, say, you know this is what we need. And then a lot of places wouldn't give me any tenant allowance to put a new air conditioning unit into the space because we needed something that can handle enough PTUs to host classes and you know all the energy that people are putting out in heat. And yeah, just kept getting turned down by a lot of people. and finally I looked at this current space in 2016.
Building the Gym: Challenges and Successes
00:08:20
Speaker
It was out of my budget. Over the years, my budget went up a little bit. This was still out of my budget. My new real estate agent that I used, his name was Steven. um he yeah He's part of Eastern Land Company. and um He was like, what about what do you think about 42 Core Street? and I was like, I already looked at that. It's a way out of my budget. He's like, well, it's ah but it's gone down in price. and I think we can we can talk him down a little bit more. so
00:08:44
Speaker
Also for short, we got the space and and and here we are. So here we signed the lease in 2019 and we opened in March 2021 just because of COVID. Everything kind of just kept backing up. It just kept getting better. So it took us like a year and a half to build out. But you're here now and and it's going well? Yeah, everything's going good, man. I think our bread and butter is personal training.
00:09:06
Speaker
If there's anything we can continue to grow more in is, is getting classes even more, you know, packed up. But we, I think, I think I like the fact that our classes are around anywhere between six to like.
00:09:20
Speaker
14 people. oh um So there are smaller classes and people like that. Attention see you and you give that a more attention yeah attention to detail, which is great. But obviously, you know as as the owner, I don't do a lot of marketing. I don't do that. you know we We're just word of mouth, really. google People Google us. We could you know create some some great reviews. and we literally people walking by the door. And other than that, we don't do any type of marketing. So I'm happy with where we are without our marketing, you know? And I think we're, we're a different concept in the, in the way that places are a lot, a lot of boutique, right? I consider us boutique studio, um our classes, or it's like a one-on-one training studio, which usually are a little smaller. And the fact that we're classes and we get one-on-one training and we're really a personal training gym with some great classes.
Braun Core Fitness Experience and Offerings
00:10:10
Speaker
um That's kind of,
00:10:12
Speaker
I feel like unheard of unless you're in Equinox, which has their regular classes and they have gym membership. We're only one-on-one training private. We're to the point where all of our clients have key cards access to come in, but no one else can come in doors locked all day until 30, 20 minutes before class, then they're unlocked to the class people. And then we're a smaller class. That's what kind of makes us a different um concept. The whole point of personal training is it is personalized, right? Whatever that client's objectives are, where you're meeting them where they are to to do what they want and need to do. What is you talked about, you got really into it, you were a football player in high school, you got into bodybuilding in college. And so have that, not necessarily addiction, but that hunger, that desire for training and for fitness. What does your own personal fitness regime and regimen look like right now?
00:11:04
Speaker
you know i'm not a hundred percent happy with my current regimen because i spent so much time on the business my regimen is six days a week i work out it's not to my goals workout monday and tuesday i work out with my class monday day i do strength conditioning so it's a high intensity hard workout Am I happy with the workout? Absolutely. It's not my goals. Tuesday is strength class, high intensity lifting class. I do the workout with the class. Again, tough class, really hard. But again, not lifting to what my goals are, which my goals would be to get bigger and gain more muscle. I used to be at one point I was like 220 pounds and five foot nine. Um, and I had a good amount of fat on me, but I loved, you know, I love, I love muscle. I'm like 200 pounds now. So I'm like 20 pounds less. And
00:11:51
Speaker
But I'm way more fit than I was before, that's for sure. ah Wednesday is kind of I figure out when can I work out because my schedule is usually 5 30 a.m. straight through about 7 7 30 p.m. back to back client. So if someone cancels. I use that time to either workout or my dog eat. It's like, you know, it's like, all right, when am I going to work out? Am I going to work out early? Late Thursday is like the only day I have scheduled with a client to work out for legs. And then Friday is another. I love to try my best to take a class somewhere else on Fridays.
00:12:19
Speaker
Saturday, I try to get a run in. So like, but none of that is, you know, I really want to work on getting bigger arms, which I hardly ever do an arm workout by itself. Sometimes I do on Wednesdays or Fridays. Um, so my regimen is six days a week and they're good workouts, but they're not tailored to my exact goals. Um, because I tend to put them aside for trying to get the business. And that's one of the hardest parts about owning the gym is sometimes it's really hard to work out in your own gym.
00:12:45
Speaker
I have this beautiful facility, but the minute I start working out, somebody comes up to me and asks me a question. Hey, do we do this? I remember, oh, shoot, I need to go take care of that. You know, I need to fix that real quick before the next class. You know, it's like so on like Sunday.
00:13:02
Speaker
Sunday's like the one day I really want to try to work out and I never do because I don't want to come to the gym. So I want to go somewhere else. So I tried to do something active. Like this weekend I played pickleball and I got a good sweat in, but it wasn't to me, you know, it's maybe it's an average person that's going to be a great workout. And I thought, yeah, sure. I moved a lot. I got my heart rate up, but that wasn't a workout to me. You know, it was a great movement. It was good. Like I always call it like natural human activity, right? It's like I have a client that goes on vacation and like, all right,
00:13:30
Speaker
You know, Andrew, they're going to, I'm going to give you these two workouts. You're going to be on vacation for four days. You just got to clean these two workouts. It's going to be 30 minutes each. Just go to the hotel gym and you'd pair dumbbells. It's it. We're going to go through them together and do these workouts together. And then you're going to have no problem doing them on your own. And then 90% of the time they come back and say, all right, Andrew, did you do your vacation workouts? And you're like, no, but I got a ton of walking in. So I'm like, so you did, you know, normal human activity.
00:13:57
Speaker
And they're like, no, but it was more than normal. I'm like, okay, well, that's good. But you didn't do, I mean, i'm I'm not shaming them, but I am saying, all right, like, it's just, it's like, one of those things that's, that you need to move, we need to move, we shouldn't be doing nothing. So my Sunday she was pickleball, I'll consider that a workout. But for someone, maybe for your average person, that would be, that would have been a great workout, you know?
00:14:19
Speaker
It's back to like just understanding what your goals, what your objectives are, right? If the first step is just moving and getting people moving. Yes, that's great. So you have strength training in there. It's a lot of classes in its classes you're leading. It sounded like Thursday, you have a dedicated leg that you do with a client or you have your own. I had a client just say, Hey man, I don't want to really work out by myself. I'd rather train with you and have you work out with me. Like I don't want someone to train me rather than working out with me. He gets more out of that and like, I'm all for it. Forces me to do. And so we said, he's like, I never work out legs on my own.
00:14:54
Speaker
Okay, great. Let's do legs. So every Thursday we have our leg day, which is helpful for helpful for me. Just legs used to be really exciting for me. And then you get an age where they're not exciting anymore as as a guy. It's like back in the day when you're really strong and it was like my strong point and they're still pretty strong for me, for other people, you know? But it's just like, you know, and such it's such such a draining workout. That's like, so it's nice to have a partner to do that with, you know? Yeah, I guess
Personalized Client Training and Goals
00:15:19
Speaker
that's probably how he felt too. right Exactly. Totally.
00:15:23
Speaker
I feel like you brought up a good point with that comment like leg days when you were younger were a little bit different than they are now. um And I guess with your clients, how is there modifications that you do like when you're training them, um knowing that people do have different goals? And like the idea of this podcast is talking about like health span. um What would those like recommendations or modifications be? and like Do you find yourself implementing them for yourself sometimes knowing you have such a varied training schedule? Yeah. So the, I mean, there's all sorts of different variations we can do, um, for like when people have issues, you know, a lot of times people have issues with lunges. So we have have them do step ups, right? It's just that little change in something that's pretty similar, but.
00:16:11
Speaker
totally different at the same time and that's something you learn as a change like how to how to come up with something fast on the point right i'm a horrible improv person i would love to improve when they love to stand up comedy when they just like a bucket listing this is my own stand-up comments so good at improving exercises is a I can't do this, what can I do? like To be able to come up with something real fast that mimics something close is kind of a cool skill to have. You don't realize you have it until people ask you often. you know um All sorts of different versions you can do. you know People can do leg extensions, so you do rubber band, knee flexes, stuff like that. You figure out what are people we can. Sometimes people are like, I can't do this because my knees hurt all the time, but realistically, sometimes they need to lose some weight and they get a lot of pressure on their knees.
00:16:55
Speaker
So what do we do? You know, we can always, instead of telling them to do weighted exercise, we got to do body weight because they have plenty of weight to use. You know, not a bad thing. It's just, Hey, we're going to use your weight to your advantage. And then, so, I mean, so many different variations we can do with, with legs, right. Um, and doesn't need to be, you and people think about legs and be like, I don't want to do like barbell squats. It doesn't need to be barbell squats. People just think about leg days and they think of that and like walking lunges. There's just a lot of options we can do still.
00:17:26
Speaker
you know, mimic that stuff. What was the, what was the part of the question towards me too? I think you were asking. Oh, if there's anything that like you've had to do or that you've done, um, like personally, like knowing your, you know, transitioned from this like bodybuilding background to now like being a coach in the beginning of my leg day, more so is, is stretching in the beginning.
00:17:49
Speaker
mobility in 36 now, so I'm not young, not old. you know I'm not you kind of right in the middle. I feel fine. Luckily, I don't have very many injuries, but I do notice when I don't do like certain stretches in the beginning, I do the 90s called the 90-90 stretch.
00:18:06
Speaker
I call it a goalie stretch when you spread your knees and you're trying to get your kind of your pelvis to the floor almost like you're doing a split, doing some bodyweight squats. that stuff If I don't do that stuff in the beginning of my workout, I totally feel like I'm setting myself to injure myself because I just feel totally different. Whereas, younger bra, no problem. I just jump into some barbell squats.
00:18:27
Speaker
and go, you know? Everyone always says, oh, you know, you wait until you get my age. I get it. Like, i i so I'll tell you what, I'm i'm never going to try my best and to never tell people that. I hate it when people say, well, when you're my age, you really feel it's like you're always going to be 10 years older than me. So you're always going to say that to me.
00:18:45
Speaker
so My goal is to prove people wrong and to continue to do things that make me not feel older than them and be like, I'm still stronger than you, mofo. I mean, that is the goal, right? like let's Let's feel good every single day. Don't use your age as ah as a reason why things are hurting. I get it. People hurt. And sometimes there is really physicalities that you can't prevent and you need surgery to do. There's no doubt that you know there's degrading cartilage and you know, that debilitates you and never one to say like, ah, they just got to push through it. But sometimes you do, but if there's, you know, an actual physical problem. There's obviously that's different. So you're in a unique position. You got to kind of build out design your own gem. What is your go to favorite piece of equipment that you have? Three things.
00:19:35
Speaker
this These have been around, but I feel like I brought light to them in Boston. I'm not saying I'm the one that made them popular, but I honestly had never really heard of them until I went to a CrossFit gym a long time ago and and there was one and we didn't even use it multiple times. The skier. I feel like skiers are huge now. One of my concepts in 2018 when I was writing my concept is I wanted skiers and rowers. That was my first thing.
00:19:58
Speaker
And then I realized I really like the air dime echo bikes stuff like that because there's there's no way you can cheat on right spin bikes you can twist it you can decrease resistance and like those bikes there's no resistance changing it's just you it's just hard push right so I think I'm most I really love skiers because were I feel like one of the first you know the gym the local gym I worked at for nine years, I asked them every year to add a skier into the budget because I really wanted one. I was one of the biggest drivers of income to the entire company, New York, Boston, Philly, Washington, DC. I was number two in the company, and like they can't give me one skier, which is $1,000. Yet, I'm bringing the most clients in. for you know It's like crazy. and so I was like, when I have my gym, I'm going to have skiers in there,
00:20:45
Speaker
I love those. I think they're super low impact. They're different people. They're fun. They're not intimidating, right? It's like, yeah people get intimidated by the air bike. They don't get intimidated by the skiers. and then If they've never done them, they and learn them. They're like, this is fun. You hear people saying it's kind of fun. So skiers, I love those. um So we have 10 skiers, we have 10 rowers, and we have 10 echo bikes.
00:21:04
Speaker
and broor And every week we switch. So it's like our signature class, one of our five types of classes, we do the the machine of the week in strength, right? One or two muscle groups. And the next day is machine of the week in strength, whether it be endurance, sprints, whatever on the machine. And then the next week we change to the next machine, rowers. And the next week we go to the bikes and the next week we go back to the skiers. So that way it's never boring. Also as the instructor, it's never important too. I just couldn't imagine teaching on the same machine every week. You know what I'm saying? It's just, it's just monotonous.
00:21:34
Speaker
building out different mobility, different movement, like back to our bodies are made to move, like moving in all these different ways. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, right. Different, different, right. Not a repetitive motion. and One thing and I've never understood and people love it is spin classes, right? Indoor cycling. People love it. I mean, I think it's, it's dying right now. Unfortunately, um, a lot of the studios are changing to the strength, strength and spin and then total strength classes. And a lot of classes here, I call it,
00:22:02
Speaker
I like to consider it an effect that I made up the name of called the cupcake effect. It's like in New York City, they had like one cupcake shop and they're like, you've got to go to Betsy's cupcake shop. And then like Rick's cupcake shop opened right next door. And then there's like five cupcake shops and they're like $10 a cupcake. And now they're all closed because they all closed themselves down. It's because there was too many cupcake shops and it wasn't anything special. Same thing happened to Spin Studios.
00:22:27
Speaker
I couldn't believe how many spin studios have been opening up in Boston and now they're starting to turn into yoga studios and strength studios instead. And like, I can name like four of them. I'm not going to say their names, but that have closed down and reopened into something totally different. Same owners, but cause they realize, you know, spin is dead. It's just a repetitive motion for an hour, maybe once a week, but people were going to these classes three or four days a week, you know, cause they love the dance aspect of it. So that was great movement.
00:22:54
Speaker
You know if my mom was doing spin I would be happy but not for your average person every single you was like oh man as the one thing yeah it was right right changing machines every week is kind of nice to get your body moving in different way and then second exercise I really like this is a random super random one I have a Nordic hamstring.
00:23:13
Speaker
piece of equipment that you nailed into the ground. Nordic hamstrings are where you lock your heels into the machine and you slowly go down to your upper body and you try to pull yourself up with your hamstrings. You know, the big GHD machines, those are a version of it, but you can do a lot more things on the GHD. So I love that piece of equipment randomly. And then I love i love barbell workouts, honestly, I think. People say if you um were stuck on like a deserted island with one piece of equipment you need, it's a barbell.
00:23:42
Speaker
That's it. As old school as that is, is's like like my favorite exercise is power squat clean. I think it's such a hard exercise. You could do eight reps with a fairly decent weight, and it's your guest. It's cardio. It's resistance. It's all about it.
00:23:59
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, when you talked about the like clients going and the gym workout and just the two free weights and and you can do it with two dumbbells, it's a shame more gyms don't have the barbell. like It's just so versatile what you can do. and If jim gyms were trying to be better, they would start adding that stuff in for sure. Oh, yeah.
00:24:18
Speaker
I agree. Even though it's not to your own goals, right? You're working around being a business owner, working with your clients in your workouts, you're still working out quite a lot. You're still moving quite a lot. Um, and so you have to no doubt think about how you recover your body. And so what, what does recovery mean and look like to you, whether it's sleep or other modalities, you're saying, Hey, I know I got to go teach this class tomorrow and be ready.
00:24:47
Speaker
I think if there's one piece of fitness that I'm missing, it's my recovery. I'm and the worst um example of recovery.
Balancing Business, Recovery, and Nutrition
00:24:56
Speaker
I know how important it is and and some of those things and it's part of owning the business and not having the time to recover. Luckily, I feel fine all the time. meaning And maybe sometimes you need to recover, you don't realize you need to recover until you feel past that point. Maybe because I move so much and I'm so used to it and my job has been this way for so long, it's not okay. I'm not saying it's okay, but on average, I get five and a half hours of sleep and I'm the first one to be like, I know that's wrong.
00:25:25
Speaker
because it's just at the end of the night, if i I get home usually at 9 PM and then I want to cook and then I want to, or sometimes I have pre-made meals that I order from a company and, but sometimes I want to just chill and meditate. My meditation is watching one TV show, just turn off my brain and not talk. Cause all I do all day is talk, right? Um, cause part of being a personal trainer is to be able to have conversation and keep people engaged and keep people wanting back, wanting to come back because it's not boring, you know,
00:25:51
Speaker
keeping the air filled with conversation because it's really about your client. I want to ask things about you, great, but I'm not trying to... you know A great example, I used to know this trainer at Old Jim and I'd hear her client say, I got five and a half hours of sleep last night and she'd be like,
00:26:10
Speaker
I know I got five hours. you know She like one upper every time. Let the girl say her peace and like don't, unless she asks you how much sleep you got, like make her feel appreciated in like, oh man, this is such a hard day. And she's like, I know my day is crazy. It's the hardest day ever. I'm like, this is therapy. Let them talk, you know? Yeah. Wow. So so the sleep, you you do the show and you have to get up early, right? but What time shel is your first class?
00:26:40
Speaker
First client every day is 5.30. Yeah. And you gotta be there, be ready, trim open. Yeah. So I mean, my hardest part is definitely recovery. I know I'm not, you know, I know I don't get it. And yet it's funny. We have a family Fitbit challenge going on. our and and my Me and my family and mom wanted to get a Fitbit to try to get her moving a little bit.
00:27:00
Speaker
And I'm not convinced it's telling the truth, but I get between like 27 to 35,000 steps a day because all I do is walk around all day. You know, I'm not, not going for runs or anything. Like that's just how much I move. And like my family's like, what's wrong with, like, how are you consistently getting 25,000 steps and you're not even like going for runs or any, you know, like, because I'm just walking, I stand all day, you know?
00:27:27
Speaker
having breaks like this are great to like sit down. And I think my body is so used to it that my recovery is a lot different than other people, you know, protein powder. I do some creatine. Other than that, I don't take any other supplements. So those are the two protein and creatine. That's it. Do you have brands you like on each of those? You know, I like Naked Way, Naked, Naked Nutrition because they're so minimal. I think that's all I go, Naked, Naked Nutrition for Naked Way. It's not the best tasting thing.
00:27:58
Speaker
You know yeah how it is. You're just taking it to get the the nutrients. Yeah. And how about the creatine? As long as it's creatine monohydrate powder, I'm happy with it. But I also do making nutrition just because to keep it in the family. That's on the supplement side. How do you think about nutrition otherwise? like you Are you thoughtful about hearing the meals? Yeah. During the week, I try my best to um So I order from different meal companies to to keep it fresh. Pre-made meals, I try my best to do complex carbs during the week. So brown rice, sweet potato, oatmeal, bulgur, buckwheat, quinoa, fruits for dessert. and I try my best during the week.
00:28:36
Speaker
um to give myself a little sweet tooth. At nighttime, I try to stick to meat and vegetables and then fruit as like my carb at nighttime, just to get my mind off it. And I stay fairly lean, right? I'm not crazy lean right now, but I'm, you know, I can see my six pack and I'm happy with that, but I could always lose a couple more pounds. During during the weekend, I think part of the, you know, the five pillars or whatever, you say it's social, some part of that is great.
00:29:02
Speaker
Social connection. I'm a big advocate of going out. All my friends are my clients. It's all the people I hang out with are my clients. pretty but Maybe I have like two people I hang out that are not my clients. so and Part of that is going out and in Drinking having fun. I enjoy having drinks on Fridays and Saturdays Usually just one week usually just one day Saturday and I look forward to it, you know um So weekends I tend to take off try to do healthy in the morning oatmeal or eggs on the weekend on Saturday Friday and Saturday and then Sundays like whatever goes I'm trying to eat, you know when I sleep in I get my
00:29:42
Speaker
eight hours usually on Sunday, and then I eat whatever. So like nutrition during the week is pretty spot on. I think that's what keeps me and fairly lean and, you know, to to to my liking when I work in the mirror. um There's something to be said, if you can do five days on and tuesday two days off, that's going to be helpful. And something I always try to like encourage is being hungry is good sometimes.
00:30:09
Speaker
At nighttime, I'm more hungry. I'm like, I need to get some eating. Like, no, I don't. It's just your body burning fat. If you feel hungry, it's a good thing. It's like people were so easily reaching to the next food, like oh we can grab food because we're hungry. And like, but that to me is like the feeling of being hungry is the feeling of burning fat.
00:30:28
Speaker
With your clients, i guess since they are people that you're spending time with, do you think the 80-20, if that's how you'd want to put it, like approach to the lifestyle kind of keeps them on track as well? I know you mentioned like the the thing about bodybuilding, and I'm seeing this with my mom myself. She's three weeks out from a competition, so I'm home right now and she's eating like just tilapia we couldn't bring her to father's day brunch so like that like detriment that makes it so hard to balance um is that something you tell your clients and you follow from personal experience just to like stay on track and kind of make it as enjoyable as possible
00:31:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think 80-20 is a good rule. like You mean 80% good and 20%? Yeah. like The five days a week, stay on your regimen and like do what works for you on the weekends. Yeah. If I could get my clients to do that, that would be amazing. you know Because you got to enjoy yourself. right You have to enjoy yourself a little bit. And that's huge.
00:31:28
Speaker
You know, it's like massive, like you have to, you can't just be, unless you have a competition or something you got to get ready for. That's super important. Like you gotta, you gotta enjoy yourself or else you're just going to burn yourself out. And that's the thing about bodybuilding competitions is like you burn yourself out. And then after the competition, you're like,
00:31:45
Speaker
Ah, you know, like having okay it's on both sides, right? So it's one understanding and recognizing and investing in the importance of that social connection pillar that even if you eat the perfect nutrition and workout all the time and you get perfect sleep, if you're socially isolated, you're still going to have all these health risks that you're running because we're social creatures. And then there's other piece of it, even if you had the social side of making it sustainable. so doing Being healthy for a year, it's not like you do this one year of being healthy and you're like, okay, I'm set for the rest of life. and It's a daily ongoing practice. and so What is it that's going to make it sustainable for you? It just sounds like you found it of saying, hey, I i work hard. I'm 5'30 with my first client. I'm not getting home until 9. It's a rough week.
00:32:36
Speaker
but i I have a lot of fun. Like I'm on my feet all day. I'm doing stuff that I love during that time. And I'm not so hard and fast on it on the weekend and go have fun with my friends. Right.
00:32:47
Speaker
yeah I'm curious on the the front side, which direction that
Community Building and Relaxation Techniques
00:32:51
Speaker
went. So was it people that you were already friends with were like, Hey, man, you, you have it figured out. Can I train with you? Can you help train me? Can do my best? Okay. So you spend so much time with them. You just become friends. Yeah, that, I mean, it's, I mean, I think people spend more time with me than they do anyone, even if they're, even if they're seeing me one hour a week, that's an hour one on one hanging out for an hour every single week.
00:33:17
Speaker
you know Every single week, I think that's so much so they start to become really good friends. then Also, on on a client front, I take a lot of people out to eat, yeah out for drinks. I get 10 games a year to the Red Sox and the Bruins to take clients to as friends. I'm not like, hey, do you want to come as a friend? I'm like, hey, I got a pair of tickets. It's just client relations, but it's more so.
00:33:40
Speaker
keep keeping them as good friends and then having a good time with them too. you know And then I moved to Boston, I don't know anyone here. So all my friends end up being old people that I hang out with every single day. you know Again, I get to spend more time with these people than they do with their family because they spend maybe you know with their family once a month for a dinner or a brunch or something like that for two or three hours.
00:34:03
Speaker
you know It's not often that you just hang out with one person every single week. Yeah, to build that depth of connection. You briefly mentioned your your meditation practice of being able to shut off the brain, watch some TV. ah Do you have any other, like any kind of breathing exercise, anything that you say, hey, if I'm amped up, anything, this is kind of what takes me down? Or you're just kind of going all the time? A joke with my brother, because my brother always tells me,
00:34:31
Speaker
I have a minor reading disability. I just don't comprehend reading easily. I can read textbooks and I like it, but I just hate reading books, honestly. I want to read books, but my brother, every like every two years, he's like, I got this great book. He's really into reading, learning, learn you know real estate, blah, blah, blah, things I want to learn, but I just don't and just to have the patience. I know you don't like reading, but I'm sending you this book. It's so good. You're going to love it. Just try it a little bit.
00:35:00
Speaker
like shit I'm not going to read it. i just so i've I've even tried the audiobooks and I start listening to them, but it's just, I don't have you your average commuter time. I take some 10 minutes to get here for five minutes on my bike. That's my commute. I'm not, there's no time for me. And so when I get home, so he's like, you should try this app. You know, it's a meditation app and blah, blah, blah. And then I started to realize the more he started to like try to convince me to read books and meditate. I was like, man, my meditation is TV. Like I don't watch a lot of it, but it is so nice to just turn off and like turn on imagination and just listen, you know?
00:35:38
Speaker
two and That to me is a form of meditation that people probably don't consider meditation. It's just like sitting, watching, listening, just like listening to a podcast is or listening to a meditation app is somebody's meditation. It's like turning off my brain and and turning on the imagination of a TV show's meditation.
00:35:59
Speaker
Then it really works to like take my mind off, whether it be watching Star Wars because it's so sci-fi or watching an active TV show. that That's like you know taking your brain and putting it somewhere else. Yeah. Would you say you're an extrovert or an introvert? Extrovert.
00:36:17
Speaker
Okay. Cause I think this is important in that like to do what you do all day, right? You're not just physically moving, but you're putting yourself out there in this conversation, a new person, new conversation, keeping rolling hour after hour. But even for someone like you as an extrovert and you go out with your friends on the weekends, by the time you get to the end of the day, you're still trained, right? You're still like, I need to stop talking. I need to just impress. So finding that space, whether it is, you know, your Netflix or Hulu or whatever subscription or meditation or whatever it is, I think for the the listeners is really important to to know where your limits are, whether you're an extrovert or introvert. Yeah. Find your own thing, right? What works best for you. Yeah. I think people people just got to step back and think, where am I most relaxed? That's your meditation. Maybe if you haven't found it yet, then that's different, but I think everyone can find has found it somehow without thinking about it. Or if they just simplify it and say, where am I most relaxed?
00:37:15
Speaker
And then me, I just love the idea at the end of my day, eating my dinner and watching a show. It's a good point. like Because we talked about sometimes on the show, people say, oh, I don't like to work out. What do you mean by that? like Well, I tried running and I hate it. OK, so you're saying you don't like to run. there There are a million other ways to work out. And same with people say, oh, I can't meditate. It's like, well, how did you try like this? OK, well, what is it to your point that makes you feel relaxed? like Lean into that and find your way to relax and decompress.
00:37:45
Speaker
Totally. You mentioned on Sundays, you do get your eight hours of sleep. What's the difference? You just don't take clients in the morning. Yeah, I try my best not to work on Sundays. This Sunday I'm working. Sometimes I just got to do it. But usually I don't, I don't send an alarm clock. People, people, um, someone asked me one time, what's one thing that people, that you, people would assume about you. That's not right. That's not correct. You know, like that's totally off. I say, see, people assume I just wake up early every day, but I'm not a morning person at all.
00:38:15
Speaker
but I'm up every day. So on Sunday, I'll sleep till like 1 p.m. if I don't have clients. But that being said, Saturday night, remember, is my night to party. So I'll go to sleep till 1 a.m. and then come home and eat junk food and go to sleep at 3.30 a.m. You know, so I'm getting, might not be the most healthy, you know, hours of sleep, but I always i always also try my best to get a nap in on Sunday it too. It's like like mandatory in my head that I like, it's like 7 p.m. I'm like, no, I'm still gonna get my nap. Like, it's just like, I'm gonna do it, it's for me, you know, it's my day.
00:38:45
Speaker
Yeah. and Having that one day, I mean, you're giving so much for yourself all the rest of the days. Having that is definitely important. When you get the the limited sleep, do you find there any things you do or don't do that help the sleep be better? Not necessarily. I just, I guess, um, I guess, you know, sometimes when we get more sleep, I feel more tired. I think that happens to a lot of people that like five and a half hour mark isn't horrible for me. I'm so used to it. that No, I don't and don't think there is. i think think and i I tend to eat late too, which is not the best for sleeping. I actually eat late and then I still stay up late anyway, so I think I have time to digest, but I don't have any recommendations for that. I appreciate you being here today, Bron. Is there anything before we sign off, anything you want to leave the listeners with?
Final Thoughts on Enjoyment and Resources
00:39:34
Speaker
you know we'll We'll put your social handle, your link to your site and everything in the show notes, but anything you want to share?
00:39:41
Speaker
I guess if there's one thing people need to know about, I would love people to know about me always is that everyone that knows me, who trains with me or my staff or anyone, you know they know that there's this like thing against like working out.
00:39:56
Speaker
to enjoy yourself that is like I think so like thought about as wrong. like Work out to earn your brunch. I love that. I fucking love the fact that I'm going to work out hard and then I'm going to earn drinks. and ball I'm not not trying to work out just to earn them. I just enjoy them more. so People know that you know it's not all about being super, super strict all the time, but you got to enjoy yourself. so you know I'm the least stereotypical trainer when it comes to Strictly eating all the time strictly, you know, not doing things and strictly working out all day long. It's like I'm ah I think I'm your Most next-door trainer you can find and that's how people should be workout to enjoy yourself. And that's what my lifestyle is all about Look good, too. But That helps it definitely helps. Well, yeah, thank you, Brian. All right. Thanks for your time guys. Thanks for inviting me
00:40:47
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Health Span podcast. Remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other healthspan role models on the lively.com. Enjoy day.